The communications revolution of the past few years has seen an explosion in the number of wireless devices. Cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptops, and other consumer devices are using wireless technology to provide connectivity to their users. Wireless technology is currently being used to provide voice-based services for cellular and PCS (Personal Communication Services) telephones, with increasing need for into building coverage. PDAs and laptops can now access the Internet and local dedicated intranets, giving end users access to not only email but also to World Wide Web based content. The increased demand for access to more services in more locations imposes higher performance demands on the wireless infrastructure.
One major problem facing wireless networks is backhaul data transmission. As cellular and PCS voice utilization inside buildings increases and as the data transfer rate provided to the end user increases, the backhaul network feeding the localized wireless nodes gets heavily burdened. Each local wireless node servicing local wireless end users must be fed traffic from public and/or private, voice and/or data networks. As each end user demands coverage in more areas and higher data throughput, the backhaul network, the network that feeds the localized wireless nodes that actually distribute data traffic to individual end users, has to provide more and more data capacity. Further, as wireless data speed requirements increase, cell sizes—the area serviced by the localized wireless nodes—must shrink. As cell density increases, then, so does the number of backhaul nodes and links that are needed to feed the cells. In fact, the number of backhaul links increases inversely with the square of the wireless nodes' cell radius.
Because of the above, high speed, high capacity wireless networks have generally been limited by backhaul bandwidth. Such bandwidth, previously provided by copper, optical or microwave radio links, comes at a very great cost to the operator and deployer of the wireless network. A wireless backhaul is clearly an attractive alternative. In particular, a wired backhaul is expensive to deploy as physical connections must be run to each node.
One problem with wireless backhaul networks is the need for point to point links between the backhaul nodes in the backhaul network. Installing such backhaul nodes requires extensive set up costs in terms of time and labor as the installation team has to manually point, configure, and setup each backhaul node. Not only that but the process for ensuring that one wireless backhaul antenna lines up with a corresponding antenna at another node may require two teams—one at one node and another at the other node to ensure that data is being received properly at either end of the link.
Another issue with some backhaul wireless networks is their limitation to a two dimensional plane. Obstacles between two backhaul nodes are usually overcome by setting up more nodes that circumvent the obstacles on one plane. The approach usually requires more nodes deployed and increased overhead and increased probabilities of problems.
Based on the above, there is therefore a need for solutions and alternatives that at least mitigate, if not overcome, the limitations of the prior art. Such solutions and alternatives should simplify the installation and configuring process while allowing full backhaul capabilities for a lesser number of nodes.